South African low-cost airline 1time is not backing down to increasing competition in its sector and is adding new routes and more flights to its current flight schedule.
From March 25, 1time will fly daily between Cape Town and Durban and on Fridays and Sundays between Johannesburg and George. It will also add a third weekly flight, on a Thursday, between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
Furthermore, the Johannesburg-Durban route will see an increase of up to seven flights a day and the Johannesburg-Cape Town route will offer up to eight flights a day.
“The new service between Durban and Cape Town is the third and final link in the golden triangle and we believe there’s great potential to grow the market on this route,” said Rodney James, 1time marketing director, on Monday.
“The new service between Johannesburg and George has been introduced due to popular demand, and due to the huge increase in fares by our competitors in the last six months. We also look forward to increasing the George service on a seasonal basis where there is sufficient demand,” he said.
The new routes and additional flights mean 1time will have 1.5 million seats available for the year, at up to 222 flights a week. To keep up with demand, the airline has ordered a new MD80 aircraft to add to its existing fleet of seven aircraft.
“We are very pleased with 1time’s growth since we launched nearly three years ago,” James said. “As South Africa’s first genuine low-fare airline, we continue to offer airfares that are consistently lower than our competition’s, and our low fares have dramatically stimulated the domestic air-travel market with many first-time flyers.”